How to find a job after 50 from part time to full time, from career moves to new careers

Copyright Page Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Baby Boomers and the Changing Workplace Chapter 1: The Value of Older Workers Chapter 2: Leaving the Workplace Chapter 3: A New Career

Copyright © 2005 by Betsy Cummings

All rights reserved

Warner Books

Hachette Book Group

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Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

The Warner Business Books logo is a trademark of Warner Books.First eBook Edition: October 2005

ISBN: 978-0-446-56143-3

Trying to Reinvent Your Career After 50? Hoping to Find the

Answer? Why Settle for Just One?

There is no one right path to HOW TO FIND A JOB AFTER 50 In these pages you’ll be introduced

to a wide range of creative solutions that have worked for other mature job seekers from all walks oflife Find out how:

After she lost her job, Nona S., fifty, a former news producer and charity celebrity recruiter,overcame the stigma of “being overqualified” and volunteered her way into multiple full-timeoffers

An interim executive placement worked for Stephen F., fifty-nine, who wanted to return to hislongtime career in academia and enjoy professional payoff without the office headaches

A broken ankle and free small-business classes inspired Marianne D to give up her year accounting career and follow her dream of opening a quilt shop

twenty-five-In middle age, a former Seaworld marketing exec and father of six uncovered a hidden artistictalent and turned the nightmare of an unexpected layoff into a $4-million-a-year business

Gerry B., fifty-three, negotiated early retirement and walked away from a fifteen-year stint as an

HR executive to forge a career that would bring him closer to home and improve his quality oflife

Stay-at-home mom Sharai R employed a step-by-step approach—from college classes to

volunteering to part-time work—to successfully reenter the workforce after a twenty-year

absence

How to Find a Job After 50

Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Baby Boomers and the Changing Workplace

Chapter 1: The Value of Older Workers

Chapter 2: Leaving the Workplace

Chapter 3: A New Career, A New Start

Part II: Jobs for the Older Worker

Chapter 4: Why Part-Time Work Pays

Chapter 5: The Attraction of Former Employees

Chapter 6: Fulfilling Your Entrepreneurial Dreams

Chapter 7: Women in the Workplace

Chapter 8: Mastering Networking

Chapter 9: Retirement Hurdles Lead to Work

Appendix A: AARP’s 2004 Best Employers for Workers Over 50Appendix B: Additional Reading

Just like finding a dream job, writing a book takes any number of interviews, as well as an

enormous amount of effort and assistance, from folks without whose help this book would not havebeen possible

I’d like to thank my editor Rick Wolff at Warner Books, who so generously gave me the

opportunity to write about such a compelling topic, one that is rapidly becoming a point of focus forone of America’s largest populations He helped define more clearly the content of this book, andwith his guidance the final product has evolved into a rich resource for mature job seekers

Thanks to Melinda Ligos for her tireless support and encouragement during the relentless race thatwas this book As much as an editor, every writer needs a mentor, a role Melinda has served for mefor many years

Jeri Sedlar provided invaluable insights into the baby boomer generation as well as an impressiveunderstanding of what’s at stake in the job market for Americans over fifty A huge thank-you to

Nancy Thompson and Deborah Russell at AARP, and Colin Milner at the International Council onActive Aging, who provided countless studies, data, and reports that helped build a statistical

foundation for a good deal of the book’s research

Eric Kingson, a professor of social work and public administration at Syracuse University, hasbeen helpful on a number of work-related pieces I’ve researched in addition to this book He alwaysprovides sound insight and discussion on the topic of older workers

The online job site Monster.com provided much-needed job-hunting and résumé-rewriting tips forwhich I am grateful A special thanks to Monster founder and chairman Jeff Taylor for his—as usual

—candid remarks about the state of America’s job market and outlook on the future of work in thiscountry Such forthcoming, honest dialogue can be a rare find for reporters Jeff is always a richresource in that regard

A tremendous thank-you to John Berry, who listened more than anyone while this book was beingwritten He provided more support than I ever imagined one person could offer

Finally, I’d like to thank the countless individuals fifty and over who so readily shared their

stories of struggle and success in rich detail so that readers could be moved to find the job that mostinspires them Their stories prove that there’s a dream job for every older worker—and that it’sentirely possible to find it

The Fifty-Year-Old Wake-Up Call

In the past year, more than five hundred thousand Americans began their workday gainfully employedand walked out at the end of the day without a job Fired, laid off, forced out as the victim of a

company closure, or otherwise shown the door, millions of workers, plenty of them over the age offifty, were suddenly forced to reenter the job search market, something many hadn’t faced for years,some not for decades

Others simply walked out on their own, uninspired by what they do, desperate to escape the

restrictions of tight management, or anxious to find a new career path—or at least a job that will offerthem a different professional role or challenge

Regardless of how they got there, embarking on a job hunt can be daunting and, for those ill

prepared, a quick lesson in humility, frustration, or despair Never an easy proposition, finding a jobafter the age of fifty can be disheartening for some and overwhelming, even terrifying for others

Résumés not looked at in years may need to be completely reworked Interviewing skills have likelyall but dried up Networking—probably the most feared professional task next to public speaking—issomething few job seekers are willing to embrace

What’s more, if you haven’t traveled the job-hunting circuit in recent years, you may not be aware

of the many resources that have sprung up out there in the last year or two alone Classified

advertising certainly still exists And it shouldn’t be knocked—people land jobs every day by

scanning the listings in their local newspaper But where job seekers might once have been able torely on that historically reliable source alone, now it’s just the tip of the job-hunting iceberg—and

barely that Classifieds can be the last spot a company places a listing for a position, especially if the

job is in a niche industry where online job boards focused on a particular skill or area of expertisemay more effectively target the talent that a company is seeking

The good news, however, is that older workers do have a vast, rich pool of resources they maynot have been aware of, may have taken for granted, or may simply have overlooked And that

pertains to far more than just job postings Longtime employment in a particular industry providesreams of contacts for job seekers, but many applicants don’t immediately consider that option whenthey start looking for work Industry groups can help out-of-work job hunters realize what areas of anindustry might be easiest to tap for job openings Association memberships throughout the years cannow pay off in contacts and job leads

The best tactic for mature job seekers? Stop before you panic, and consider all the contacts,

resources, and avenues of exploration your career has built to date Those who do are usually

pleasantly surprised with not only the options they have but also the opportunities they never

imagined lay ahead

To be certain, the workplace after fifty is a rich terrain For all its uncertainty—careers windingdown, retirement looming, a younger generation itching to fill spots soon to be vacated by older

workers—the opportunity for professional growth has never been more robust for Americans overfifty than it is today And for good reason “People now are living on average thirty years longer,”

says Jeri Sedlar, a retirement expert and co-author of Don’t Retire, Rewire!, a book about finding

fulfilling work later in life And they’re looking to fill those years with meaningful work or make surethat they have work options so their finances don’t dry up

If thirty or more years of living beyond age fifty is the case for most Americans, older workerssuddenly faced with a pink slip would be wise to consider the many decades of living that probablylie ahead of them But they should also realize that there are numerous opportunities for older jobseekers in need of employment later in life Don’t lose hope; older workers are a much more desiredtalent pool than you may think

That’s good news for workers over fifty who are suddenly unemployed but aren’t thinking abouthow they can make early retirement work Most Americans in that age range don’t have the luxury ofhanging up their career after being told to clean out their desk and say good-bye Expenses usuallydemand that people put in years more of work In addition, more Americans are also realizing howcrucial their jobs are to their physical and mental well-being

In interviews conducted for this book with dozens of senior workers—from as young as 50 to asold as 104—all, without fail, stressed that they couldn’t feel fulfilled financially, professionally,intellectually, socially, or emotionally without some form of work in their later years

Where to Go from Here?

That’s the question of the hour on the lips of many older workers who have walked off the job or beenasked to leave their place of employment in recent years

For better or worse, you’ve found yourself at a crossroads Whether it’s a devastating layoff or anintentional walkout from a painful position, you now have the opportunity to rework your career fromthis point forward

To change careers, find a new job, or return to work after years away, especially at this stage inlife, it pays to discover what really turns you on, what drives you day in and day out, what’s going topropel you into another profession, and what could motivate a monumental change in your

professional life

That requires some serious personal exploration Workers in this age group are asking themselvesthe following:

How do I really want to spend the next twenty to thirty years of my life, now that I can

realistically expect to do so?

Where can I continue to showcase my talents and be appreciated and compensated for doing so?How can I step away from an all-consuming, high-pressure career, but still keep a hand in theprofession that I find compelling?

What’s more important to me now—lifestyle or professional growth?

How much do I need to work to maintain my current quality of life?

What effect will my professional change have on my family?

These are important questions

Baby boomers’ lives aren’t without their hurdles As they enter their fifties, they could just aseasily start forging a path to retirement as they could one toward new professional ambitions Butdoing the latter might seem like an easier path for those who are young, eager, and untainted by theeconomic, political, financial, and social frustrations of corporate life Changing paths now requirestapping energy—whether it’s sparked by a newfound interest, panic over lost employment, or thepossibility of a new lease on your professional life

That energy will be widely needed as older workers face other possible hurdles in pursuing newavenues Plenty of potential employers, for example, are wary of older workers, whom they fear

might be more feeble, less mentally alert, less ambitious, or more apt to suffer from health problemsthan younger colleagues Experts on aging insist that those perceptions are untrue The good news isthat the eagerness with which companies are retaining a mature workforce is a refreshing sign thatemployees in their fifties and beyond are an increasingly valued and important part of American

business success

Even for those managers who still don’t have faith in the strength of older workers, human

resource executives are slowly working to change the perceptions rooted deep within company

offices Consider a recent study from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), whichshowed that:

72 percent of human resource professionals said older workers provide invaluable experience

69 percent said they had a stronger work ethic than younger workers

68 percent said they were more reliable employees

If ageism still exists in American offices today, it may not be able to for long—and rightly so

Over the next two decades, seventy-six million baby boomers will approach retirement—leaving

behind a mammoth gap and talent drain in corporate America Predictions are that over the next tenyears, the fastest-growing workforce age group will be made up of those fifty-five and older At thesame time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs available in the marketwill increase by 15 percent, or twenty-two million jobs, by 2010, but the labor force will only offer

an additional seventeen million candidates This means that if boomers aren’t a highly desirable talentpool now, they will be in the near future—in fact, they will comprise a necessary recruitment

population for companies looking to fill gaps in the workforce with already trained and skilled

workers

Some in corporate America are taking steps now to help older workers break new ground as theynavigate an evolving workplace Companies such as Procter & Gamble have realized the value offormer employees and are bringing them back to tap their skills and expertise on a part-time basis.Companies such as the Aerospace Corporation, a research and development company in El Segundo,California, have established phased-retirement programs that allow older workers to gradually stepaway from their careers over months or years Others, such as Ford Motor Company, offer part-timeprograms in which employees can reduce the number of hours they work each week

Workforce Growth Per Age Group by 2010

Workers 25 and younger 2 percent

Workers 25-34 -5 percent

Workers 35-44 -19 percent

Workers 45-54 8 percent

Workers 55-plus 33 percent

Source: Department of Health and Human Services

Recent surveys indicate that older workers are interested in at least some form of adjustment totheir work schedule For many, that may mean working part time or flex time A Watson Wyatt surveyreleased in 2004 polled one thousand workers between ages fifty and seventy; two-thirds noted thatthey wanted to phase out of their current employer And if companies want to keep workers longer,recruit them back, or make certain they don’t jump ship for the competition, which may offer a moreenticing work environment, they should begin now to craft strategies that cater to older workers

Certain industries, such as education, health care, and manufacturing, are more receptive to phasingand other flexible work options

Leveraging Years of Experience

Despite a rash of lost jobs and a seemingly bleak job market in recent years, experts have repeatedlyinsisted that older workers are gaining power and influence in the workplace—and are securing morepromising work opportunities as a result

But there’s an individual push going on as well Much of the effort to continue working is comingfrom older workers punished by a market that tanked after the dot-com boom Others trying to make

do in retirement without an income are finding themselves blowing through the nest egg at an alarmingrate And perhaps more than anything, older workers are realizing that if they are living longer, they’llwant to be more engaged in their later years and look for ways to find life inspiring The typical post-career life activities, such as bridge, golf, and gardening, may not cut it

“It’s a necessity to work and create mental stimulation in older people,” says Colin Milner, CEO

of the International Council on Active Aging “Work is a great thing dollar-wise, but it offers a

variety of different elements that you need to live It stimulates your mind, keeps you socially

connected It’s much more than a purpose.”

Indeed, more and more Americans are discovering that work is a key part of moving into the nextstage of their lives

Making a Move

If you think the end of the road is near in your current job or line of work, but aren’t sure, ask yourselfthe following:

If I’m not happy in my current job, what is it that I’d rather be doing?

Is there something I could change about my current work situation that would make it better—maybe working fewer hours or participating in more inspiring projects?

Am I ready to leave the camaraderie of peers and work on my own or do I simply want a newenvironment with similar work elements and structure?

Are there any more challenging positions or levels of responsibility that I could tap at this

company or in my line of work elsewhere?

Have I learned all that I can in this profession, or are there areas still unexplored that couldprovide new career growth?

Would I be bored not coming to work every day?

Could I change my job or work hours and still maintain my current lifestyle and cost of living?

Is there much salary growth left for me at my company?

Is there a company in my field that would provide better growth and money opportunities than

my current employer?

Would it pay to try my same position in another industry?

If none of these answers comes easily, then chances are you need to search deeper within yourself

to find what drives you professionally day in and day out If professional ambition has never beenyour strong suit, be honest about it Maybe rethinking your career or work life isn’t about finding anew job or career—maybe it’s about holding on to the one you already have Perhaps finding a

similar job in your line of work and simply building a retirement portfolio or boosting the one you’vealready got is more important than discovering a new professional commitment at this stage of yourlife Forcing yourself to revamp a professional career later in life will only be an exercise in

frustration and disappointment if you’re not professionally driven in the first place

One other thing to keep in mind: Be flexible while investigating new career and work options

Where once almost all Americans imagined themselves not working in their sixties or seventies,

a large group of us now see new work opportunities Likewise, your vision for working later in life

or during retirement may change many times before you settle on what it is you really want to do

“My vision has changed tremendously,” says Robert Cannon, fifty-six, who opened his CannonAdvantage business consultancy later in life and watched an array of people throughout his careertravel down various paths toward retirement “It was sad to see so many people hanging on and

counting the days until they could retire and get out of wherever it was they were,” he continues “I’veseen others quit cold turkey and they don’t have anything else to do And yet I’ve seen others whohave stayed involved One man is eighty-five and still actively working He called me to talk about

my helping him on another project This man plays tennis every week, mows his own lawn, and still

is looking forward to life where so many others are ready to roll up and die.”

Part I

Baby Boomers and the Changing Workplace

Chapter 1

The Value of Older Workers

As millions of mature workers exit the labor market in the next two decades, the good news, ofcourse, is that older workers will be in greater demand—and will be the point of focus of corporate

recruitment and retention programs “I’m expecting the worst labor shortage of our lifetime,” says

Jeff Taylor, founder and chairman of online job site Monster.com “If you look at the actual

numbers, you have about seventy million baby boomers who are going to retire between now and

2015 and only thirty million younger workers to take their place at the entry level.”

At places like Deere & Company, for example, 50 percent of employees are expected to retirewithin a decade, according to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) The company iscurrently taking a very proactive approach to becoming more appealing to older employees throughrecruitment and retention programs targeted specifically at mature workers

It’s hard to imagine such a drastic shortage now in a market that has seen companies shed millions

of people in corporate downsizings while job creation has been lethargic at best But a mass exodus

of the boomers currently in the workforce could have such an effect Experiencing a skill shortage, ascompanies did during the late-1990s dot-com boom, was stressful for employers but not impossible

to manage A body shortage is another matter entirely

According to Taylor, “Corporations know how to recruit around skills, such as nursing, but whenthey start having body shortages, corporations are not prepared to manage through that.” The answercould largely lie with retaining or recruiting employees in their career twilight years Firms that don’tmight see disastrous results “We’re going to see a trend where companies go out of business becausethey don’t know how to recruit and retain employees,” Taylor predicts Even with jobs moving

offshore and overseas, companies will have a hard time filling positions “The actual number of jobsoffshore in places like India is only 1 to 2 percent” of U.S employees, for instance—and with

millions of positions potentially being vacated by retiring boomers, it’s clear that outsourcing won’teven begin to fill the gap “We had 1.4 million information technology openings in 1999, and

corporations were in a dead panic,” Taylor says Boost that number to ten million in the coming

decade and some companies may be sent into a staffing tailspin

The good news for older workers, then, is that they’ll have more leverage to craft the career theyenvision later in life—whether that vision consists of full-time work, part-time employment on theirterms, jobs with flexible hours, or other individually crafted work opportunities We may not see thefree cars and fifty-thousand-dollar signing bonuses of the dot-com era; nor does the looming laborshortage mean workers fifty and over can saunter into an employer’s office any day soon, spew alitany of demands, and expect all of them to be met But it does mean they don’t have to feel as thoughthey’ve been cast off for a younger generation

Young workers will always be a highly sought-after employee population, but after working witholder employees with more frequency through retiree recruitment programs, many companies are

realizing how valuable a labor resource they are and are eager to hire more Certain industries—

including telecommunications and security services—are already seeking out older workers for their reliability and work ethic.

Cathy Fyock, an employment strategist in Crestwood, Kentucky, and an expert on older workers,notes the success of an initiative she helped create as a human resource executive for a national fast-food restaurant chain several years ago Restaurant managers were complaining that they couldn’thold on to employees for long; their businesses were suffering under enormous staff turnover Butwhen HR professionals sent older applicants to apply for jobs at the restaurants, managers turnedthem away—“because they were old,” Fyock says

So company headquarters started pressuring managers to hire workers in that age group The

reaction, when managers finally did, was astounding “They would call us and say, ‘This person isworking out so well, we have to get another one,’” Fyock notes “Until that positive experience,

managers were dead set against older workers It’s amazing that we can be so biased against

something that with any luck we’re all going to reach ourselves someday.”

Managers in various other fields are coming to appreciate older workers, too Temporary agencyVeritude in Boston has noted an increasing number of corporate clients requesting older workers forjobs such as call center support “Older workers are a very rich source of talent for our customers,”says Linda Stewart, executive vice president at Veritude

Joanne Fritz, an expert on mature workers and founder of the Web site NotYetRetired.com, recalls

a security company specifically requesting older workers when screening job applicants for securityshifts at office buildings No experience was needed—the company simply wanted a population thatwould consistently show up for work and be diligent about their duties Security managers said theyhad noticed such desirable work traits—low turnover, responsible behavior, conscientious attitudes,and infrequent sick days—more consistently in older workers than among the younger security

officers they hired

And there are other indicators that opportunities for older workers are expanding Just look at theexplosion of Web sites over the past several years developed to help older job seekers tap a marketthat increasingly needs their talent and expertise ThePhoenixLink.com, for example, connects olderworkers with recruiters for mid- to senior-level management positions Bill Vick, the site’s founderand owner, named his firm for the rising Phoenix of mythology, to represent the rising stock of olderemployees in the American workplace Perhaps he’s on to something: The site has three thousandregistered users and averages fifteen million viewed pages a month Such sites are important forolder workers suffering under the mass layoffs occurring over the past few years Other online jobboards geared toward workers over fifty offer that audience a place to feel their specific employmentissues are being addressed

But do these job boards for seniors work better than general job-hunting sites, such as Monster,CareerBuilder, or HotJobs, which cast a wide net and list a varied array of postings for job seekers

of all ages? Not necessarily While the Senior Job Bank and its counterparts may offer more jobstargeted specifically to seniors, general sites also feature sections devoted entirely to older workers,covering topics from landing part-time jobs to fighting ageism and working abroad Monster, forexample, has an entire section dedicated to diversity and older workers Plus a majority of recruitersspend more time perusing the better-known boards And actual samples on Monster and similar sites

of how résumés, for example, can be reworked are extremely useful in putting together materials for

an effective job search.

Tapping Older Workers

When any new trend or movement hits a culture, resources pop up to meet its needs That’s just astrue with the older-worker job search Google the terms “jobs” and “older worker” and hundreds ofthousands of responses pop up

The information on these sites can be invaluable Eric Summers, founder and director of the

Senior Job Bank, tells the story of a retired printer who was so despondent over his lack of job

options that he became suicidal “He posted a résumé on seniorjobbank.com and within a day got theright job around the corner from him,” Summers says “His children sent me five hundred dollarsbecause I saved their father’s life.”

That may be an uncommon tale, but experts say senior job boards can do much to help older

workers—if only by making them aware that there are plenty of groups interested in their talents andwork experience And older applicants can do much to enhance their job search by using them

effectively The keys are to search many of them and often; use their available articles, research, andlinks to your advantage; and figure out ways the sites can get you connected to other job seekers,industry contacts, and people who can help get you farther down your career path Don’t just wait forpostings, send in your résumé, and sit back hoping for a call Be proactive on job boards Join

discussion groups, post your résumé, network with peers online Job searches are a numbers game:

The more people and leads you can connect with, the more likely you are to get an offer.

Job Sites for Older Workers

Where can you find online job resources if you’re fifty-plus? The following list—while nowherenear exhaustive—will get you started on some of the most popular older-worker job boards andsummarize the services they offer As you move around these sites, you’ll realize which are bestsuited to your needs

Retired Brains, www.retiredbrains.com This site connects senior workers with employerslooking to hire people for full-time, part-time, or temporary positions that require little to notraining A job search for accountants, for example, showed everything from fifteen-dollar-an-hour jobs to six-figure full-time positions You’ll also find résumé-writing services, information

on continuing education programs nationwide, free trade publications, and links and phone

numbers for fifty volunteer organizations The site’s Senior Resource Center offers links togovernment, retirement planning, insurance, and other sites helpful to older Americans

The Phoenix Link, www.thephoenixlink.com, offers interim and full-time management positionsfor technology workers and executives There are live chat rooms and online forums for users todiscuss career and job issues Career books are available through an online bookstore, and you

can participate in virtual training workshops or create an electronic résumé with streaming

video

The Senior Job Bank, www.seniorjobbank.org Focused almost entirely on job listings ratherthan job-seeker services, the Senior Job Bank provides detailed listings of jobs by state

Positions tend to be entry level to midmanagement

Maturity Works, www.maturityworks.org Sponsored by the National Council on the Aging, thissite is a rich resource for aging information, although very few jobs are listed

Executive Interim Management, www.interimmgt.us, is a staffing firm that places high-levelexecutives in interim positions for companies that need top-tier execs to help them through

transitions

Experience Works, www.experienceworks.org Focused on helping lower-income older

workers find employment, Experience Works places many people who have never worked intojobs via training programs or nonprofit organizations

Boomer Career, www.boomercareer.com This robust site and online newsletter offers

everything from tips on résumé writing to job postings to discussions on the fear of changingjobs You’ll find content on the work-life balance, financial planning, and starting a business Afree membership is required to access the site’s content

Senior Service America, www.seniorserviceamerica.org, trains and places older workers incommunity service jobs It also includes an online news section with the latest information onage-related issues

Monster, www.monster.com A special section on older workers within Monster’s diversitysection is specifically geared toward older workers and offers a wealth of practical, detailedtips on searching for jobs, acing interviews, battling ageism, and other vital tools for finding ajob after fifty

Quintessential Careers, www.quintcareers.com Geared for all ages, this Web site offers onlinesearches for jobs An equally strong feature is articles that provide advice for older workers oneverything from networking to job hunting

Senior Help Wanted, www.seniorhelpwanted.com, is a comprehensive job board with a

smattering of postings for positions from day laborers to executives

The Retired Worker, www.theretiredworker.com This site’s job postings are specifically forpart-time, temporary, or contract workers It also offers online discussion forums about variouswork topics as well as an e-newsletter

First Gov for Seniors, www.firstgov.gov A government-sponsored Web site that offers postingsfor federal jobs along with volunteer opportunities

Seniors for Hire, www.seniors4hire.org, claims to be the number one site online for U.S jobseekers over fifty, and offers information on resources and articles along with job listings Italso includes links to other senior, non-job-related Web sites

Jobs for Seniors Meet Up, www.jobsforseniors.meetup.com Here you’ll find a listing of citiesworldwide (but mostly within the United States) where meetings are held in which seniors cannetwork with other older job seekers

Retire Careers, www.retirecareers.com, has job postings, online résumé-building tips, andcapabilities to search for information about various companies

In addition to these sites, don’t forget to check the job boards directly on a company’s Web site.These listings are sometimes more up to date, and applying directly to a company can help you avoidbeing inundated by headhunters who cruise through online job boards looking to fill their recruitmentquotas with job seekers You’re also one step closer to the actual person who will do the hiring And

it keeps your name in front of the company’s HR personnel, who more than likely will keep your

résumé on file and periodically review it for other positions that become available

Debunking Older-Worker Myths

Not every employer understands the need for older talent in the coming years, nor are they all open tothe idea of hiring older workers over younger ones “There’s certainly discrimination” against olderworkers, according to Colin Milner of the International Council on Active Aging

Sadly, Milner’s right—age discrimination is alive and well in corporate America “Employers arenot interested in hiring seniors because they don’t want to pay expensive health benefits that seniorscreate,” says Art Koff, founder of RetiredBrains.com, a job and resource Web site for older workers

Or at least that’s the impression that many companies have about senior workers

But there may be a more fundamental reason, notes aging expert Cathy Fyock “People don’t want

to face their own mortality Seeing someone older somehow, even on a subconscious level, makes anindividual realize that they will be there someday, too, and they don’t want to face that.”

That may or may not be, but whatever fuels ageism in the workplace is at play now, according tomany older job seekers Nona Snyder, fifty, knows the feeling all too well For two decades she had a

thriving career, spending fourteen years as a producer for programs such as ABC’s World News

Tonight, then later working as the head of celebrity recruitment for the March of Dimes, and finally as

head of the American Cancer Society

Surely her résumé is one that opens doors for her But since losing her job following a

restructuring at the ACS, Snyder has found little to no employment In interview after interview withmore than forty companies in the past three years, she’s heard phrases like “You’re overqualified”;

“Won’t you be bored?”; and “We’ll be in touch” time and again from employers that she is convincedare not interested in hiring someone her age, particularly when she is competing against applicantsfifteen years or more her junior

Those kinds of lines are a refrain heard all too commonly from employers today in businessesacross the country, Fyock agrees, because they offer employers a way to explain away why an olderworker may not be suitable for a position without being accused of discriminatory practices But thepolitically correct phrases are so fraught with unstated messages that even the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken notice, ruling that such statements—especially ones aboutbeing overqualified—can possibly be considered cases for age discrimination

On Snyder’s part, the job hunt has gotten so desperate that she’s found herself in temporary

agencies being interviewed by twenty-year-olds for receptionist jobs that pay eighteen thousand

dollars a year “I never hear back from them,” Snyder says A colleague of hers experienced a similarjob hunt after a career as a television producer and is now a secretary in a Washington, DC, dentist’soffice

Luckily for Snyder, her efforts are starting to pay off Volunteering at a local hospital and museumeventually landed her multiple interviews for full-time directorial positions—something she sayscame about quickly after she demonstrated her skills through volunteer work She’s hopeful that,

several interviews later, she’ll receive an offer shortly

Will the position offer the salary she once enjoyed? Probably not, Snyder predicts But there areplenty of other perks that she says she’ll be delighted with “It’s a new world we live in and it’s

about benefits, benefits, benefits I’m compromising and I’ve learned that doing so is part of the

whole package Plus, the hours are good, so the job will leave me free time to do what I want to do

on my own.”

Can the perception that Snyder faced about older workers being antiquated really be that

pervasive? Is this movement by older workers to reengage themselves in new or former careers doingnothing to banish such myths? The short answer is that discrimination still exists The good news isthat it’s being diminished more and more

Slowly, organizations such as AARP are correcting misperceptions—that older workers are lesssharp, less reliable, more likely to have health problems—that have persisted for years, even thoughmany companies are reluctant to let those stereotypes go Older workers, for their part, might arguethat younger generations have a weaker work ethic, feel an unwarranted sense of entitlement, andexpect significant compensation for little to no work, while having little loyalty to their employers.More important, Milner says, the undesirable outcomes that can result from the draining of corporateAmerica’s talent pool are beginning to dawn on executives: “Companies are beginning to realize theaging of America is happening, and because of that fewer workers are going to be around.”

Until the day when full realization hits, however, there are definitely some tricks to combating agediscrimination during interviews:

Play Up Your Experience You’ve got years of working under your belt—now’s the time to

exploit them If nothing else, experience is the one advantage you have over younger job seekersgoing after the same position Highlight any unique talents you’ve developed over time that youthink a younger person may not have

Appear Younger No, not by dressing in leather low riders with your newly pierced belly

button on full display Show that you are keeping up with the times Seek out the innovators—or

at least the latest innovations—in your chosen field Keep up on current news in the industry orprofession in which you’re looking to work Attend industry conferences, association meetings,and other events in your area that may offer insight into your chosen field

Emphasize Your Professionalism Ageism isn’t a one-way street There are typecasts that exist

among younger workers as well, and for every stereotype an employer may project onto olderworkers, there exists an equal stereotype of younger job seekers Now may be the time to

emphasize your reliability, proven performance level, and overall track record over a long-termcareer

Be Flexible Part of the problem with the interviewing process for older workers, particularly

those who have held upper-level management positions, is that employers assume they won’tsettle for anything but a job at the same level Moreover, some interviewers may assume thatolder job seekers come to the office with a set management style and rigid view of how things

should be run So it’s important during the interview to talk about and emphasize your

willingness to start out on a lower level, work under the supervision of someone ten years yourjunior, or operate within a flexible management style

Play It Cool That doesn’t mean aloof or ridiculously younger than you actually are But it

doesn’t hurt to put on a calm, reasoned, casual demeanor during the interview Don’t overdo itand seem lackadaisical, but it’s important for a potential employer to realize that just becauseyou’re a little older doesn’t mean you’re incapable of rolling with the punches, or have becometoo structured and formatted in your approach to work

Breaking the Bias Barriers

Unfortunately, age discrimination is an inevitable part of the job hunt for older workers The key

to overcoming ageist biases is to predict and counteract them, given the fact that any politically

correct HR professional won’t mention them outright If you can recognize some of the more commonbiases, you’ll be better prepared to fight them off They include, but aren’t limited to:

You are older, so you’re less healthy—that may mean more sick days and less productivity.You can’t take criticism or supervision from someone younger than you

You have developed a rigid management or work style after so many years in the workplace, andyou’re either not open to trying new methods or slow in learning them

The chances of you sticking around for very long are slim to none, since you’ve probably got onefoot in the retirement door already

You’re obviously out of touch with the latest technology

Your age is going to seriously up the cost of benefits

You lack energy and physical stamina

You’re not willing to start at the bottom and work your way up

A generation gap will prevent you from forming productive interpersonal relationships in theoffice with younger co-workers

Clients will associate the company with an older face—and possibly a more dated image in themarket

Your ideas are from an earlier time and out of touch with today’s industry

The Advantage of Age

For all the barriers that older workers face and fight off as they interview for jobs where employers

may exhibit unfair biases against them, there are plenty of benefits to being an older worker that

people over fifty can use in their favor Workers who have specific or high-level skills sharpened

over a twenty- or thirty-year career, for example, can have invaluable expertise And those who fitthat bill are highly sought to resolve pressing business issues

At Executive Interim Management, former executives from companies such as General Electric,who are now semiretired, are placed in high-level assignments on an interim basis, often nine months

to a year “We’re not doing an executive search, because our clients need a response time in a week

or two,” says Roger Sweeney, executive director of the organization, which has been operating in theUnited States for five years but has roots in Europe that go back two decades Instead, Sweeney ispulling from a roster of highly skilled executives who can be inserted into a company at a moment’snotice to help deal with major management issues

“We’re overkilling” the clients with talent, Sweeney says “We’re bringing in a heavyweight

person who is stepping down in assignment and doesn’t expect to make the same money as when theywere employed full time, but still wants to be compensated well for the job they are doing.” Typicalsituations include mergers and acquisitions, corporate downsizings, and other management crises thatcall for objective, hard-and-fast professional decisions The New York office fills about ten interimpositions a year, compared with forty or fifty in major European cities “This is still a new idea to theU.S.,” Sweeney admits But it is certainly catching on

“Interim executive assignments are gaining in value these days for a number of reasons,” says

Joseph Daniel McCool, editor in chief of Executive Recruiter News (a product of Kennedy

Information publishing and research company) “An interim exec comes with less risk than a

permanent hire, they’re easier to disentangle from an organization if they don’t fit into the culture ofthe employer, and there are more experienced executives looking for these short-term opportunities.”

In short, there’s better talent available on the fly today

A March 2004 survey by Kennedy Information of the fifty largest executive-recruiting firms

suggests older executives may be searching more often for this type of work today The study foundthat 26 percent of executive recruiters seek out part-time jobs for executives, largely for those gettingout of their careers That’s an increase of 7 percent in just one year, McCool says

And it’s not just former business executives Nonprofit and academic arenas are using interim staff

as well The Registry for College and University Presidents places former heads of schools in interimpositions that last two or three years Stephen Fritz, fifty-nine, has been with the registry since 2000after spending fourteen years on an executive level within private institutions, most recently at

Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee A brief foray into stockbrokerage didn’t provide himthe satisfaction that he had felt in academia: It promised to be a “nice opportunity,” Fritz says, and “agood break from the academic world But after a few years, I missed the academic world and missedworking with younger folks.”

Going back to college seemed important, but Fritz wasn’t certain about going back full time

That’s when he discovered the registry and the flexibility of finding work on an interim basis Nowhe’s the interim dean of arts and sciences at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, helping to bring theschool up to “university status” and develop a college of arts and sciences Before that he was aninterim president at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, strengthening a failing school that wasfinancially devastated

The interim work allows Fritz enough involvement to become invested in the schools he works atbut not overwhelmed by the atmosphere there “I’m allowed to be totally objective,” he says “It’s theopportunity to make a significant contribution without having to worry about the politics, about what

my job’s going to look like, and how I can position myself for the next five to ten years.”

In other words, it gives him immense professional enjoyment without the office headaches It’s a

work strategy he sees himself using for at least the next five to ten years Under this work plan, Fritzsays, “I don’t have to worry about competing for tenure or locking in a long stay at a school that willlead to a nice, comfortable retirement.”

Signs Older Workers Are Welcome

On the surface, it’s not always easy to tell if a potential employer is eager to hire older workers Agediscrimination is, of course, illegal, but it doesn’t stop a lot of companies from making biased

judgments against older job seekers, masked by statements that the older workers “weren’t as

qualified.” Other than locating lists of companies known to be friendly to mature workers (plenty can

be found on the AARP Web site), there are a few positive signs that AARP says older workers canlook for as they search for employment These are not guarantees that companies are actually activelyrecruiting or hiring job seekers over fifty, but they can usually be taken as encouraging signs by

applicants within that age group that a company is friendly to older workers:

Job listings specifically mention the need for maturity and work experience

Ads for positions are listed on Web sites known to be frequented by older workers or people ofvarying ages

Various types of training are available to workers of any age, and older workers are encouraged

to participate

The company’s benefits program includes extensive prescription drug coverage as well as extralong-term care insurance and short- and long-term disability insurance

Pension plans are clearly defined for long-term employees

Flexible work options, such as flex time, telecommuting, and time off for family needs, are

available for all employee age groups

Phased-retirement programs have been implemented

Former employees are encouraged to return to work on a part-time basis

Source: AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50

And, indeed, some companies are:

Adecco Employment Services, a career counseling and placement agency in Melville, NewYork, offers temporary jobs to its employees as a bridge to retirement

DaVita, Inc., a health care company in Torrance, California, offers flex-time schedules and

tuition reimbursement to employees

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., in Hartford, Connecticut, has created eight flexiblework programs for staff, including phased retirement

New York Life Insurance Company, in New York, has a child care center for grandchildren.Mitretek Systems, Inc., an engineering firm in Falls Church, Virginia, provides career counseling

for employees of all ages.

Service from Every Level

If there’s an equalizer in business, it’s the uncertainty of life after a layoff From high-powered

executive to midlevel manager to factory floor worker, what job opportunities lie ahead are anyone’sguess It might seem that executives would be better connected with the inside track to potential jobsthrough corporate and industry networking But a seemingly endless trail of stories tells a differenttale One marketing executive let go after his company went bust in the dot-com boom spent ninemonths looking for a job Of course, the state of an economy has as much to do with a person’s job-

hunting success as anything—something clearly not working for any employee on any level after a

bubble bursts

Blue-collar workers, whose skills can be highly specialized and suitable only for niche markets,may find job opportunities less bountiful after mass layoffs, versus marketing managers who cantransfer many of their skills from one job to the next or even one industry to another Blue-collarworkers also may face on-the-job injury and other hurdles their white-collar colleagues don’t, whichcanpermanently prevent them from finding gainful employment

Inevitably, another problem seems to occur in the face of serious job loss among blue-collar

workers: Their plight is overlooked Sweeping layoffs of white-collar, midtier managers at majorcorporations are front-page news, while factory layoffs in the hundreds or thousands, though worthy

of coverage by national press, are often analyzed more out of concern for a company’s market

viability than for the number of people whose regular paychecks have suddenly been eliminated.But even abysmal economies may not be all bad for blue-collar workers, including those in theirfifties Temporary work, for example, has seen vast growth in the past few years (up 18.6 percentsince November 2001, according to the Economic Policy Institute), suggesting there may be steadyjobs for blue-collar workers who can pick up temporary assignments

“It’s unlikely you’ll hire a senior for a forklift driver, but you could hire a mechanic on a projectbasis—hourly or salaried—who has some managerial experience,” says Art Koff

Service Jobs Promising Strong Growth in the Next Ten Years

In addition to identifying companies that are open to hiring people over fifty, finding work might

be easier if you pursue professions or positions in which older workers have a better chance of

becoming employed What follows is by no means a complete list of such jobs, but it is a snapshot ofwhere older workers are more likely to find jobs in the workplace:

Customer service representative

Teaching assistant

Teacher

Retail salesperson.

Landscaper/groundskeeper.Cashier

Computer support specialist.Real estate agent

Secretary/receptionist

Truck driver/courier

Bookkeeper/accounting clerk.Child care worker

Source: AARP

Chapter 2

Leaving the Workplace

As more and more older workers approach retirement—currently 14 percent of the workforce is

fifty-five and older, and this number is expected to rise to 19 percent by 2012, according to

AARP—when and how to leave your current job can be as tough a decision as deciding what to doafter exiting “This is a time in life that has reached a new focus partly because we age more slowlynow and we age more healthfully,” says Christine Millen, a former executive at Deloitte Consulting,then Deloitte & Touche, who tussled with her own post-career plans before founding the TransitionNetwork for women over fifty “We now have a serious thirty years between fifty and becoming frailand elderly.”

Typically, the notion has been that older workers start to feel less professional and financial stresslater in their careers The mortgage is paid, the kids are out of school, and the financial pressures thatexisted earlier aren’t as pressing

But these days, numerous older employees are making a new realization in an increasingly volatileeconomy: that retirement can, ironically, bring its own element of stress to a person’s life—figuringout what to do with so much free time, readjusting to having no daily schedule, and otherwise feelingthat your sense of purpose—your job—has just been eliminated

Recently, new stresses, such as deflated portfolios, decreasing faith in traditional investments, andinternational political and economic volatility, are combining to paint an all-too-uncertain picture ofthe future Add to that sudden expenses that can crop up—a child who is suddenly out of work,

disability and accidents, evaporated retirement funds, or other unexpected costs For those who havebeen forced into the unemployment sector, the potential or, worse, realityof such emergencies is

alarming

That can be especially distressing when you’ve enjoyed a steady income and schedule for

decades In fact, one of the most disconcerting elements of leaving the workplace is the sense thatyou’re leaving behind your identity as well as your financial safety net As Americans, we are

consumed by our titles, work responsibilities, and career ambitions to such a degree that they becomewho we are during the course of our professional lives

So it stands to reason that moving into a “retirement career” or new opportunity later in life won’toccur without some trepidation—and should definitely not take place without considerable

contemplation Before doing anything, ask yourself this: Is it wise to start another job or another

career at this stage in my life? Or is staying put and making my current job more enticing the answer?

A generation ago, older workers who weren’t happy with their work situation likely endured

misery in the name of reaching the retirement finish line, with their eyes on all the rewards that ten ortwenty years of a relaxing post-work life could bring These days, people aren’t so eager to ride lifeout in such a passive manner, or aren’t able to support a life that long without working full or part

time—particularly when the period between a career and death spans decades, rather than a few

years Life expectancies are increasing, and extended time in the workplace means people sometimesneed to be committed to what they’re doing for a longer stretch And if you’re not enjoying your

position, company, or profession, that can be a long, trying stretch

Rather than resign themselves to jobs they are no longer enthused about as they were early in their

careers, older Americans are realizing that entire new careers can be built well beyond the age

of fifty Of course, you have to be willing to make the commitment And while many mature workers

may want to explore professional alternatives, fewer people seem to have a defined vision for whenexactly they’ll leave the workplace or how That may keep them working longer, or it may push them

to find ways to transition out of the workplace gradually over time

With any luck, your company has established a program to help you figure out which path is bestfor your career At places like Ford Motor Company, where HR professionals are pushing for moreemployee-friendly work options, older workers aren’t singled out for special work programs, butthey are encouraged to participate in flex-time options that the company offers The Transitional WorkArrangement, for example, allows employees to work a limited schedule—anywhere from 90 to 40percent of their original workweek—with pay and benefits reduced accordingly Ninety percent of theprogram’s participants choose to work four-day weeks, says Rosalind Cox, the company’s director ofdiversity, work life, and peer review And though their pay and benefits drop along with their hoursworked, the program allows older workers the opportunity to explore other options or ease out of theworkload of their current jobs as they contemplate moving into retirement or another stage of theircareer

Another option at Ford is the Alternative Work Schedule program, which allows staff to set upatypical work schedules, such as four ten-hour days, rather than a full, five-day workweek Certainschedules, Cox says, have been adopted by entire departments, not just individual workers, becausethe firm has given managers much scheduling leeway In addition, general flex-time programs allowworkers to decide when they prefer to report for work—coming in and leaving later or earlier asneeded

The fact that a large corporation such as Ford is instituting programs like these hints that

companies are realizing a greater need to help older staff members become more flexible later intheir careers But there’s additional evidence to suggest that such programs are being implementedonly slowly, despite the fact that they often cost companies very little Human resource professionalsseem widely aware of the impending shift in the nation’s labor market “Many of the conferences I’veattended just in this past year had a huge focus on an older workforce,” Cox says But bringing thatmessage to the very top tiers of a company can be a glacial process At Ford, for example, Cox says,more and more attention is being focused on how to best strategize with older workers, but it’s not atop priority among senior management “I see [making the issue more urgent among senior leaders atFord] as part of my responsibility so people are aware and start creating some strategy around that,”Cox says

She’ll likely be joined in her push to bring this issue to the attention of executives by counterparts

in other company offices Corporate America is certainly waking to the fact that seniors retiring overthe next several years are going to leave a massive gap in the country’s labor pool Organizationssuch as AARP are promoting such initiatives through programs like their yearly list of the AARP BestEmployers for Workers Over 50 Likewise, HR consultancies like Watson Wyatt, and corporate

management advocacy groups such as the Conference Board, survey and work with companies andemployees to determine the needs of workers within American business and encourage companies towork toward those changes But their efforts remain largely behind-the-scenes academic or industry-related work that is mentioned in business media, but not practiced widely throughout corporate

offices

And an ever-present attitude of We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it may prevent some

companies from taking a more proactive stance As with the Y2K phenomenon, companies are

treating the looming labor shortage crisis as another example of overhype Even a giant corporationlike IBM, which has created a special team to look at developing a “mature workers strategy,” admits

it has only begun to address the issue of an aging workforce

Alternate Work Schedules

A 2003 study conducted by Watson Wyatt found that many workers left employers they’d spent anentire career with because they felt work-hour flexibility was limited—an increasing concern asolder workers contemplate their careers and what they’d like to do next Companies could do much toretain these workers with a few simple strategies created to meet employees’ needs for the number ofhours worked—strategies that employees could bring to the attention of their managers:

Phased Retirement Workers transition gradually into retirement or another career move by

working fewer hours a day, week, or month and frequently reducing their level of responsibility

as well Phased retirement allows companies to hold on to valued workers for longer and

allows individuals to ease work stresses and perhaps explore their next step professionally asthey approach retirement

Flex Time This option allows workers to create different times when they will come to workand leave, rather than sticking to a set schedule from, say, 8 AM to 5 PM

Alternative Hours Employees create unusual work schedules, such as working ten days in a rowand taking three or four days off, rather than working a traditional workweek

Job Sharing Two or more employees share the same job position and alternate hours worked forthat job so they each work fewer hours per week or day

workers dutifully rode out their careers until retirement at sixty-five

Many of the dot-com millionaires have been turned back into citizens with paltry bank accounts,

their dreams of globe-trotting in retirement at thirty-five dashed But if nothing else, the notion ofpeople’s work lives ending or at least shifting so early in their careers fueled ideas among olderworkers as well Even for those whose bank accounts weren’t swollen by skyrocketing stocks in thelate 1990s, there was an idea brewing that careers could take on a whole new focus and meaningafter, say, fifty Most important, individuals didn’t have to be committed to one career per lifetime—they could develop two, three, four careers, as many as they desired and had the time and means topursue.

With that in mind, when to leave the workplace is probably the most important question on older

workers’ minds today, next to Where should I go next?

Plenty—some might argue a majority—of working Americans are uninspired by their jobs

According to Quintessential Careers, a careers Web site, thirty million people go to work every

day hating their job If you actually work the eleven thousand days that Quintessential Careers

estimates you will during a lifetime, that’s a lot of anguish to endure over a career

If you feel that much resentment toward your employer or the work you do, it’s a clue that

exploring a new career option would be beneficial as you move into your later work years But

assessing your financial security, family support, commitment to change, and realistic future goals—

as well as having an honest discussion with yourself about how you want to spend your later lifeprofessionally—are first on the list of things to do before you even consider leaving your current job,much less when or how to leave

Saying good-bye to your current company or career, not to mention a daily routine, office

camaraderie, and, ultimately, a huge part of personal identity can be little short of earth shattering “Inthe past, if someone said, ‘What do you do?’ I would define myself as the vice president of XYZcompany,” says Robert Cannon, president of Cannon Advantage in Chagrin Falls, Ohio “Now I seemyself less as a piece of [corporate America] and more as an individual.”

With that transition can come great personal and professional rewards Indeed, the notion that asingle career followed by a relaxing, comfortable retirement was the definition of success no longerholds true for a lot of people (For many Americans, of course, that’s still the key to success andfulfillment—and if that’s true for you as well, don’t try to alter your perception and chase anothercareer simply because you think it’s the new expected norm.) These days, the ability to strike outagain, find a new passion later in life, and realize professional success in a new venture after fifty isquickly becoming the new definition of success—and a necessity for those who are suddenly joblessafter fifty

“There’s this whole business of how to restructure, and many people start out by saying,

‘Retirement is going to be so wonderful, because I can do what I want when I want,’” notes Millen ofthe Transition Network But arriving at that next juncture can be daunting

“At different points in time each of us comes to realize, that’s not happening to me Some realize

in one and a half weeks and some realize in six years,” Millen continues In a regular questionnairethat she gives to new members, individuals are asked what their greatest concern is as they transitionfrom their current workplace into the next phase of their life Interactingwith co-workers on a dailybasis is always important But of almost universal concern is workers’ need for structure and theirfear of its absence once they leave the office—something to consider when jumping from one job tothe next

Patricia Smith, vice president of New Directions, an organization in Boston that helps employees,

usually fifty and older, assess the next stage of their life, including possible career or job changes andsteps to getting there, recalls one client who at sixty-two announced to his company that he was going

to retire Except he couldn’t bring himself to leave the office So he continued to spend time at thecompany, infringing on his successor’s ability to take over, as he pondered his next move throughNew Direction’s program Eventually he realized the burden he was placing on the person trying tofill his post and agreed to leave six months earlier than he had originally decided “He was not letting

go of his role,” Smith says “For many executives, this is their identity.”

In a culture where the first question out of most people’s mouths at cocktail parties, dinners—almost any social occasion—is “What do you do for a living?” it’s disconcerting to suddenly have noresponse Many people find themselves writing out daily, detailed to-do lists while between jobs,even if it’s just a compilation of errands, exercise, phone calls, or other activities that seeminglywouldn’t need strict deadlines Plus, the financial stability of full-time work as well as the familiarity

of the job you’ve come to know so well can be hard to turn your back on

“I had access to a corporate jet Now I have access to the family car I’ve gone from putting theFour Seasons and Ritz-Carlton on the corporate tab to Marriott Courtyards and Days Inn on my owntab,” Cannon says “Do I miss it? No I just see it as a difference.” But the nuances of making a majorcareer switch or leaving the workforce entirely weigh heavily on many people

Phasing Out

An increasingly popular strategy for leaving a job is called phasing, in which workers leave the

workplace in stages—often by reducing their responsibilities, assignments, and hours worked overmonths or years It’s a less shocking transition into retirement or a new line of work, say experts, forboth employees and companies, which frequently tap phasers as mentors who can pass on their

knowledge and skills to a younger generation as they’re slowly exiting their careers

In 1973, Fred Cook, previously a principal with Towers Perrin, started an executive

compensation consultancy, which has since grown to a respected compensation firm that includestwenty-one people “I just wanted to try working on my own and see if I could build a focused firmbased on what I did, which was executive compensation consulting,” Cook says

Turns out he could Now, thirty years later, Cook is ready to retire from his position as chairman

of Frederic W Cook and Company—sort of “It’s nice to step away gradually each year, althoughthere’s not anything particularly calling me, like fly fishing or golf.”

So Cook, who is now sixty-three, plans to very gradually exit his office over the next ten years,reducing his hours from 5 to 20 percent each year Doing so allows him to keep a hand in the businessbut with increasingly less responsibility and stress—and assures that he can continue to play a role inthe firm’s development and solidity years after he’s stopped working “My basic goal is to have thefirm survive and prosper without me,” says Cook, who is already grooming another company

executive to take his place Such a gradual departure is also far less jarring—for both Cook and hisstaff—than would be simply walking out on a Friday and being retired come Monday

A similar approach is being adopted by workers in corporate America who don’t want to be

working one day, celebrate their retirement send-off, and be home trying to figure out what to do next

the following week.

Experts caution that phased retirement is a slowly growing trend, evident in a few pioneeringcompanies, and not a widespread phenomenon But perhaps someday it will be A 2003 WatsonWyatt study of a thousand workers over fifty reported that two-thirds would prefer to phase out oftheir current jobs Companies would be wise to accommodate this desire as a way to hold on to vastnumbers of boomers who might otherwise retire altogether, leaving a vast talent gap behind

Companies such as telecommunications firm Qualcomm Inc., in San Diego, and Ultratech Stepper, amanufacturer of semiconductor equipment in San Jose, California, are responding with phased-

retirement programs to help workers transition into the next stage of their career or life

Telecommunications and the computer industry may, of course, be more open to some of these trends,because many employees have specific skills Losing these workers would necessitate expensivetraining of younger staff or outside workers to fill those talent gaps Still, phasing is just as beneficial

to employees—a particularly ideal strategy for workers over fifty who are trying to figure out whatjob, career, or phase of their life they want to move into next

Staffing firms like Boston’s New Directions are recognizing the importance of older-worker

trends such as phasing They’re targeting much of their business to working with executives, many ofwhom are fifty and above, who are still employed but want to consider a gradual exit strategy

Working with executives twelve to eighteen months before they depart, New Directions offers

assessments consisting of everything from psychological screenings to career tests, analyzed by thestaff’s own psychologist

One client, a CEO of a financial services firm, realized he relished being on the New York StockExchange floor, something he’d remembered and loved in his earlier career Tapping into that

memory and passion helped him make a career decision after years as an executive to become thehead of the Boston stock exchange—certainly an upper-level job, but hardly one with the prestige ofhis CEO career Arriving at that realization wasn’t an overnight process, however It required

remaining in his current job and slowly phasing out through New Direction’s self-examination

process “It took him three or four months to let go of [needing] to be a CEO, based on how otherpeople perceive him or what he thought he needed to do to be successful,” says Smith

Indeed, letting go of prestige can be one of the hardest parts of leaving a job Figuring out the nextstep is as much about planning your life as it is your next professional move Making sweeping

professional moves affects not only you but also your entire family The transition can lead to

surprises, from learning how you and your family feel about such moves to encountering unexpectedpossibilities that pop up as a result of exploration According to Smith, 25 percent of New Directionsclients leave the program with a career path or job they never before considered

Advantages to Phased Retirement

Less Shock Transitioning out of the workplace in stages is far less disconcerting than simplyexiting cold turkey one day after a decade or more at a company—not to mention thirty years ormore of going to work every day One of the most difficult things about retiring is not having anoffice, a social environment, or the sense of purpose that work so readily provides

Time to Think Easing out of a current work situation, rather than quitting outright, gives olderworkers the chance to maintain an income and sense of stability and routine in their lives whileexploring options.

An Ability to Lay Groundwork By phasing out, workers can discuss with their current employerfuture options such as part-time or consulting work as a former employee They also have time tomentor a younger workforce coming up behind them

Working on Your Time

If you’re burned out by fifty-plus-hour workweeks over a twenty-five-year career, quitting cold turkey

doesn’t have to be your only option And consider also that many workers over fifty haven’t

adequately prepared for retirement, or have expenses that don’t offer them the luxury of not working In addition, plenty of companies are offering flex- and part-time work hours, as well as

telecommuting opportunities Your company doesn’t offer that kind of program? Don’t count it out justyet The majority of companies willing to let their workers fashion creative work schedules are

starting to allow such practices to be worked out on a case-by-case basis between managers andindividual employees The key is knowing how to negotiate for such a work change And more andmore companies are now starting to foresee the mass exodus of boomers in the next ten years Theirconcern about what such a labor shortage will mean to their workforce, productivity, and marketperformance bodes well for older workers trying to negotiate various work options Negotiating

flexible work schedules, alternative retirement departures, part-time work, and other work

alternatives may thus be easier than in years past

Cathy Fyock, who has researched and written widely about retirement strategies, cites an example

of one information technology employee within a Lexington, Kentucky, hospital whose wife neededspecial medical care that she could only receive in Dallas The worker, who had been a reliable,highly valued employee since he was hired in his fifties, was now seventy, and feeling compelled towalk away from his job entirely to be with his wife Instead, his supervisor—who is convinced theolder workers in her department are a key to its success—negotiated a special work schedule

whereby the man could work every other month, allowing him to keep his job and salary but still bewith his wife frequently Other companies offer similar or equally progressive programs

A Sampling of Companies Courting the Older Worker

Scripps Health, San Diego, California At Scripps, any employee can participate in the

organization’s job-sharing program, but it seems particularly suitable for older employees

Through the program, two employees share a single job and maintain their skills but work farfewer hours per week The group also offers flex-time programs, compressed workweek

schedules, and telecommuting options for workers; it even goes so far as to offer support such ashome office equipment and skills training Through the company’s Career Transition Program

(CTP), a retention and recruitment initiative, employees can receive pay and benefits for threemonths while they look for possible jobs inside or outside the organization.

Loudoun Healthcare Inc., Leesburg, Virginia The organization partnered with George MasonUniversity in Arlington, Virginia, to offer classes on site at Loudon allowing employees to

pursue further degrees through a tuition forgiveness program Experts predict that more

companies will employ such programs in the future, when skilled workers retire and businessesare left with a younger, less skilled workforce that needs to be brought up to speed as quickly aspossible

Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Nutley, New Jersey, offers an on site placement agency that helpsplace former and retired employees in temporary positions

St Mary’s Medical Center, Huntington, West Virginia Like Hoffmann, St Mary’s offers a

reentry program whereby former nurses can be placed in available positions, but the hospital’sprogram also includes flexible work schedules and is specifically oriented toward the lifestyles

of retired employees

Source: AARP 2004 Best Employers for Workers Over 50

Explore Before Moving On

If you feel your company no longer values you, or your employer expects staff to depart at a certainage, that looming deadline can be stressful, particularly if your finances aren’t in order Too manyworkers have been blindsided by unexpected investment losses in recent years, forcing them to worklonger How long they can hang on may be frightening if their company expects, or even requires,them to leave at a certain age

Take the case of United Airlines In the summer of 2004, the company said in bankruptcy court that

it would terminate its pension contributions and replace them with defined contribution plans, similar

to 401(k) retirement programs This decision affects all United employees, including flight attendants,mechanics, and gate agents It also has an immense impact on pilots, who are required by the FederalAviation Administration to retire at sixty That’s an age far short of today’s life expectancies Whatare retired pilots to do when their pension has been terminated or severely restricted? It’s a scaryquestion, but as the following story reveals, one that can be resolved

A required departure was an increasing concern for one older worker For twenty years, ChristineMillen was a partner at Deloitte Consulting working with behemoths like the United Nations andMerrill Lynch “It was always on a very large scale, and it was fabulous,” Millen says Except forone sticking point: Deloitte required that all partners retire at sixty-two With that mandate looming,somewhere in her midfifties—and more so after her mother died—Millen began thinking, “At whatpoint do I build a different life? I decided I wanted to build one well before sixty.”

So Millen did what any stressed older worker might do: She asked questions Lots of questions “Ihad a good friend with a senior job at the UN,” Millen says “She teases me now and says, ‘You used

to keep taking me out to lunch and ask, What do you do in the morning and the following day? And

then the morning after that?’ I couldn’t figure out what people did next or how it worked How did

you make friends? How did you approach organizations where you wanted to work? What if youpromised to do work and then you didn’t like it?”

The prospect of what lay beyond her current workplace felt amorphous and daunting for Millen

“As I wrestled with this, I realized it’s a black box I don’t know anything about this world [of

working during retirement], and very few other women knew about it.” Then she hit upon an idea Shewanted to work, but not within the confines of the daily grind she’d thrived on for two decades

Fortunately for Millen, Deloitte was willing to negotiate alternatives to her current schedule So,starting in 2000, Millen began working on a project basis—taking on assignments for two years at astretch, at times, then taking three or four months off

“I knew I wanted to work less, but I didn’t want to work three days a week, because I wanted bigchunks of time to myself.” Millen also knew that if she didn’t work full time for those two years, shewould be relegated to less engaging assignments “It had to be challenging and all-consuming,

otherwise it wasn’t any fun.”

What Millen negotiated with Deloitte was an early version of phased retirement And while sheexplored that ground without much help, many companies have since developed similar offerings,some in formalized programs Deloitte actually created a Senior Leaders program around the sametime as Millen’s project work began, though the program has since been eliminated after a change incorporate structure

Other workers would be wise to follow Millen’s lead—examining their own options, skills, andinterests as well as what the world offers outside the professional life they’ve become accustomed to.For example, if you’re examining a new career, you’ll do better if you find out not only what jobs arecurrently available in that field, but also where those jobs could take you, as well as other potentialcareer paths in your new line of interest

The key to making a smooth transition, of course, is having plenty of time to investigate your

options and make a plan Too many people heading into retirement or a new professional venture takethe plunge with little more than a vague notion of how they plan to spend the next ten to fifteen years

—or whether that move is even the right thing for them at the moment Despite recent trends towardconsidering various work and volunteer alternatives to retirement, a great number of people followthe behavior patterns of their parents and either head into the same retirement role at the same age, orfail to consider the fact that other options exist until they are on the brink of exiting their careers

Millen’s self-exploration wasn’t without its frustrations: soul searching, tireless digging for

answers, and discovering that some plans simply won’t work But her exhaustive efforts were worth

it given her new post-retirement existence And such self-exploration isn’t a bad strategy for otherworkers looking to ease out of their current work situation

Identify Your Biggest Motivators

What turns you on about your job?

What did you hate about it?

What made them that way?

Research New Interests Now

Always wanted to take Spanish or work for a nonprofit? Great: Do it before you leave your job.

That way you won’t be afraid to hate it or feel obligated to stick it out

Looking into interests during your current job also gives you a steady cash flow while doing so.Burning through savings to explore possible interests after leaving your job will add to yourstress, possibly killing your optimism for a field that might otherwise spark your interest

Jump in ASAP

If your plan is to volunteer after leaving the workplace, do so now, since some organizationsmay have training programs or waiting periods before you can enter their programs The sameapproach holds true for new job opportunities—start exploring them in your current position soyou have a head start when you do actually leave your current career

Don’t Be Afraid to Fail

It’s an old, overworn saying but it’s been repeated ad nauseum because it’s true: If you can’tface the possibility of failure, then your best bet is to sit tight where you are

And if you do fail? Put that other age-old adage to work and learn from your mistakes

Make an Exit Plan

So you’ve decided to leave your current work situation Good for you Now stop Don’t just quit coldturkey For starters, you could throw your life into a tailspin, take on incredible stress financially andemotionally, and ultimately put yourself right back where you started if quitting suddenly is so

terrifying that you run back to a similar job for the sake of security

You may be miserable at your current place of employment and loathe each second of your dailycommute to the office On the other hand, you’ve already got a steady paycheck, a benefits package,and the safety of knowing that you’re supported while you look around for something else It seemslike common sense, but plenty of people near retirement, eager to get out of their daily grind, getcaught up in the excitement of new opportunities, environments, and the ability to leave their old jobbehind and chuck it all before they should

Instead, explore options while you’re still employed—negotiate a reduction in hours or

responsibilities if that’s what it takes—like opening your own business, switching careers, finding asimilar job within a different industry, or going back to school If nothing else, now is the time to

kick-start your network of contacts for job leads, start researching other companies and industries,update your résumé, and begin considering your professional strengths and skills and where they cantake you, among other things, before kicking your current job to the curb.

If your ideas about your next move remain murky, it’s particularly important to explore optionswhile you’re still pulling in a paycheck If, for example, you’re a sales manager but always wanted to

be a landscape architect, take a class on the subject now to see if structuring flower beds and pruningrosebushes is really all that you’ve imagined it to be You may realize that hands-on work outdoors,under the sun for eight hours at a stretch, is a liberation—or that it’s backbreaking labor leaving youpining for your air-conditioned cubicle

Start researching your dream career or business while you still have a job It will make

exploring that much less nerve racking, give you time to really consider your next move, and likelyprovide a stress release from your daily routine

Draw up a specific time line for your next move with mini weekly and monthly deadlines along theway Don’t worry if you don’t meet every one of those deadlines exactly—the idea is to give yourself

a general time frame for when you’d like to leave your current job Reaching your goal may requiremultiple changes along the way—don’t add stress to your life by hanging the time line over your head

as if it’s a quarterly sales quota that has to be met

Once you do decide to head out the door, make sure you do so professionally Even at the end ofyour career, when you think you may no longer need all those professional contacts as you head into anew line of work, it’s smart to assume that the world is a very small place You never know whenyou may run into former colleagues again—or need to use them as references or professional

contacts

Dr Randall Hansen, head of online job board and career advice site Quintessential Careers,

offers the following advice for exiting your current place of employment gracefully:

Give Plenty of Notice It’s typical to give at least two weeks’ notice when leaving—and

sometimes more Ask your supervisor what he thinks is best, or consult your employee handbookfor official company rules on giving notice

Negotiate Pay Don’t leave without all the outstanding pay due you—vacation, sick and

personal days, commission payments, outstanding salary, and other compensation Doing so afteryour departure can become a difficult, messy ordeal

Fill Your Shoes Want to make your employer’s life easier? Offer to help find a replacement for

the position you’re vacating, then offer to train that replacement before you leave

Don’t Coast It’s a common phenomenon among exiting workers—coasting through their last

days as they bide their time before leaving Do that and, no matter how hard you’ve worked forthe past ten years, your boss is likely to remember how you shirked your duties on your way out.Instead, make sure you complete all your assignments in a timely and professional manner, just

as you’ve (hopefully) done during the rest of your tenure at the company And make sure youupdate your boss and peers on where your projects stand

Leave on a Positive Note Don’t get caught up in company naysayers who may see a departing

employee as an ally in negativity You don’t want to leave on a bad note

One Last Good-Bye On your last day, reconnect with your supervisors, get their contact

information, and thank them once more for all their support and help As the saying goes, younever want to burn your bridges Even later in life, when you think contacts may be increasinglyless important because your career is winding down, you never know when an old colleaguecould start you off on a new career path.

Stay Put and Change

Maybe exiting isn’t the solution For those laid off, the decision has already been made But for manyworkers, a new lease on work is not about changing a career entirely, but simply breathing new lifeinto the one they’ve already got And for valued employees who have committed years of effort totheir company, managers will likely be open to working alternatives In fact, some of the best workingarrangements are orchestrated between supervisor and employee rather than through overarchingcompany programs

If you haven’t done so already, approach your boss and be honest—albeit in a positive, productivemanner—about why you want to examine alternate work schedules Perhaps you’d like to spend moretime working on some family issues; maybe your job isn’t inspiring to you at the moment; you mightnot be feeling overwhelmingly tied to your career currently; or perhaps you’d like to lessen your

workload over the next five years as you refocus and figure out how you can better reengage withyour workplace Or, if you need to infuse new life into your same position, maybe changing your

responsibilities, rather than taking on more, is the boost you need

No matter what, there are a few things to keep in mind when negotiating a new role at your currentjob:

Be Flexible You may have put in your time as a loyal, hard-charging, fifteen-year employee, but

taking a gentler, kinder approach is more likely to land you a new self-carved role Be willing towork odd hours or help in areas where you’re not usually needed

Make Your Case You’ve worked at the company for years Surely you’ve picked up some

invaluable skills that could be transferred to a more scintillating role Highlight those skills andhow they could be enhanced, altered, or—with just a little bit of training—transformed to open

up a whole new area of potential for your company or department

Write It Out Chances are, if your boss is as busy as the rest of corporate America, the last

thing she wants dropped on her agenda is the task of writing a new job description for the newposition you’re suggesting Make her life easy—write out a job description ahead of time, alongwith the benefits the new position could bring to your company, such as department

improvements, market advantages, increased revenue, and other returns Include specific

numbers, statistics, or other concrete information that will help drive home your case

Clean Up Behind Yourself Your company may be more apt to approve a major change in

responsibilities if you can account for who will fill in the gaps and pick up where your old

responsibilities left off Suggest people who can fill your role, departmental shifts that couldclose the gaps in your absence, or other means to help fill the void that your move on may leave

behind.

Chapter 3

A New Career, A New Start

In an age of fear—fear of being laid off, of having too little money to retire on, of impending terroristattacks, of the economy taking a nosedive—it stands to reason that many workers would seek outmore security and less change and simply stay put in their current jobs Why up the fear factor byventuring into a new job or, worse, a new career?

Well, because plenty of people are finding that what could have simply been their leisurely

retirement years are instead a chance to finally dive into the career they always wanted Others whonever planned on career change are seeing an opportunity pass before them and seizing it

Jack Johnston, a former SeaWorld vice president of marketing, was unexpectedly laid off with

125 other employees during a serious lull in tourism during the 1990s He had no idea what he would

do next What he finally ended up pursuing as a profession was as shocking to him as anyone

At the time he had six children, one with leukemia, and had blown through his savings paying formedical expenses to fight his child’s cancer “I was all of a sudden broke and having a very, verydifficult time,” says Johnston, whose wife had also been laid off For some reason, when he thoughtabout what to do next, he kept returning to his love of art Around Christmas that year Johnston’s wifewas admiring a fifteen-hundred dollar Santa Claus doll, well beyond Johnston’s Christmas budget.There was no way he could afford it, so he decided to make one instead, using clay from his local

craft store Surprisingly, “it came out very well,” Johnston says “I thought, What’s the potential of

marketing this piece?” He soon found out For forty-five dollars, he rented a vendor table at a local

craft show and set up his one doll The vendor next to him, whose table was full of handcrafted dolls,took one look at Johnston’s single item and asked how much He hadn’t even thought about it “Howmuch are you selling yours for?” he replied Hers were $129 each It seemed like a fair price, so heagreed to sell his for the same She bought Johnston’s doll on the spot “I realized that if a competitorwould buy it at that price, I had something,” Johnston says He took orders for eight dolls that firstday Then he slowly started raising the price—first to $299, then moving his way up to as high as

$1,000 per doll for some of his creations “I made 218 one-of-a-kind dolls that first year,” he says

“A business was born.”

It certainly was Since then, Johnston has built his doll-making business by writing a book on how

to craft dolls, creating a series of eight videos and four DVDs that sell for $49.95 apiece, and

developing a lecture series that takes him on a tour of forty-two cities in the United States and Europeeach year, in addition to the creation of ProSculpt, a new form of clay used by many of his peers

within the industry Today Johnston’s business pulls in four million dollars a year; he’s been featured

on PBS specials and within the pages of Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Johnston found a hidden talent and exploited it to launch a thriving business, by creatively addinglectures, products, and services that he knew the market needed Not everyone may have such anunusual talent to tap into, but most of us have unseen skills and abilities that we’ve either squandered

earlier in our careers, or simply never fully recognized and developed Now is the time to focus onwhat those may be and how they could offer a new working opportunity.

If you want to completely overhaul your working situation, the best way of doing so is by

transferring a skill you already have to another profession And often the best way to do that is tofigure out your greatest talents in your current position Think back on projects at work where you hadgreat success:

What made those projects more successful than others you handled?

What tasks give you the most energy and comfort on the job? Those may be an indicator of

natural talents that could be developed further

Which of those talents that you use regularly could propel you into another career?

When has your interest been particularly sparked at work?

What was it about that assignment that piqued your curiosity and made you more inspired?

How could you transfer that inspiration to another line of work?

What talents have your peers taken notice of or complimented you on?

What skills and assets that you bring to the company are regularly acknowledged and praisedduring your employee reviews?

Think about colleagues who might have already made the leap How did they transfer their skillsets to another position or company?

Time and again, it seems workers who find their true professional calling later in life do so byrecognizing what really excites them and then exploiting that in a very strategic manner

As a kid, Steven Smith always wanted to be in law enforcement But as a “nice Jewish boy”

growing up in the Northeast, he was always told that the law enforcement line of work “is not for you.You’re going to go into business and do something more entrepreneurial.”

So he did For more than twenty years, Smith ignored his early passion for law enforcement andheld high-level positions, mainly within software companies, where he learned much about softwareand technology strategy and planning When the dot-com market bottomed out in early 2001, Smith, bychance, was offered a chance to work briefly in the local sheriff’s department It might be interesting,

he thought, but he soon left, because what he thought would be “police work” turned out to be

technical oversight of the local jails, not the vision of law enforcement work he had imagined

Still, it laid a foundation on which Smith could build to gain entrée into his local police

department, which he was able to do shortly after How? He identified a key weakness in the bureauthat he knew the department’s chief agreed was of concern: a lack of technological sophistication.This dovetailed perfectly with Smith’s background

He managed to work his way into the police force by offering to work one day a week to helpcreate a technology bureau that the chief of police saw as crucial to more advanced law enforcementpractices within his department Gradually, over time, that one day a week led to full-time

employment within the police department for Smith—something he’d been coveting for years

Smith’s position, which is administrative, not on the streets, may not be the police job he

envisioned as a child, but it puts him in the environment he always dreamed of working in “You have

a childhood dream to be a policeman, but at fifty-five, you’re not going to the academy, so what’s the

next best thing?”

The next best thing took “six years of hard labor,” as Smith puts it, “volunteering, doing part-timeemployment,” proving that he had a talent the department hadn’t yet capitalized on His efforts paidoff “Do I have a gun, a radio, and a car? No,” Smith admits “But am I helping them to work smarter

by implementing digital images and technology? Absolutely I’m looking to build a legacy that I can

be proud of.”

It’s important to remain flexible and open to all sorts of job possibilities when changing

careers When Smith was a child, his vision of law enforcement was donning a police uniform and

fighting crime on the streets But after a certain age, that’s no longer a viable option Rather than hang

up his dream, though, Smith remained open to other roles he could play within the department

Ultimately, it got him to the same spot, albeit in a slightly different function

Making the Leap

It also pays to be open to different segments of the business market If you spent your career in

pharmaceutical sales and now you want to be in marketing, it doesn’t mean that you have to stick to acorporate giant, although you also have to know yourlimitations on salary shifts There are plenty ofopportunities in the nonprofit world that provide rich work environments and personal rewards thatprofit-based firms don’t always deliver And smaller firms are frequently more likely to take a

chance on someone with less experience than a corporate giant where top candidates in their field—from executives to the assembly floor—are knocking on the door every day looking for work

Gerry Beauchamp had seen a lot of change in five years As the vice president of human resourcesfor John Hancock Signature Services in Boston, he had built the company’s staff in burgeoning

markets to thirteen hundred employees Then just as quickly he had to decrease it again The economyhad tanked, newly opened business units were closed after a year or two of operations, and peoplewere being let go by the hundreds When it was all done, John Hancock’s staff had been whittled backdown to nine hundred and Beauchamp was feeling frayed, exhausted, and demoralized by the events.That’s when he was offered a promotion as director of HR within the company’s corporate structure

Beauchamp stopped to consider all that was at stake His daily commute was an hour-plus eachway—on good days—from his home in Ipswich on Boston’s North Shore to the company’s downtownoffice building (The perk of free parking for executives was beginning to lose its luster.) He reallyliked the people he worked with, but professionally he didn’t envision a better, more inspiring placefor himself at his current company He’d been worn down during the economic tailspin over the pasttwo years And most of all, “I had a son at the time who was a sophomore in high school and not

doing well,” Beauchamp says “I wanted to spend more time closer to home This was also post-9/11and I found myself saying, ‘If I can do something close to home, for less money, but get more involved

in the community, I’d do it.’”

At the time, Beauchamp recalls, he was so entrenched in the happenings of downtown Boston—where his office was—that on weekends, he and his wife would walk through his local township andneighbors would say hello to his wife and hardly recognize him It was upsetting, he says

So without a job in hand, Beauchamp, then fifty-three, negotiated an early-retirement package and

walked away in January 2002 from a fifteen-year stint as an HR executive to forge a new career thatwould bring him closer to home By May, he was the new executive director of the Ipswich YMCA.

In a facility just two years old, the current executive director was leaving; two friends who had beeninvolved in the facility’s original development asked Beauchamp if he’d like the job Beauchamp said

no But two weeks later, during the first hour of a fifteen-mile run, they approached him again, spent

an hour persuading him to reconsider, and finally managed to pique Beauchamp’s interest “I wasintrigued because it was presented as a business with over a hundred employees where only six

worked full time.”

And it was struggling The notion of handling the Y more like a business, and less like a nonprofitentity, made the job more appealing to Beauchamp “They needed someone to come in and

demonstrate a different leadership and management strategy,” he says

Since then, he’s vastly expanded the Y’s facilities, programs, and services He introduced half adozen special events for the community, created a triathlon and holiday runs for local residents,

established camps for kids during the summer, and built a baseball and soccer field and ropes course.Currently he’s helping to lead a ten-million-dollar public housing effort funded by the state, but

largely driven by the YMCA “My salary has declined 50 percent and I miss John Hancock every twoweeks when I get paid,” Beauchamp jokes “But I’m stillhappy with my choice.”

A drastic career move later in life is really about testing your values, Beauchamp believes You

have to ask yourself: What really motivates me, my paycheck or happiness with my job every day? The two can go hand in hand, of course, but that’s not always the case And there’s no shame in

saying that money is your number one motivator, even if it means loathing the job you’re in Honestyabout what turns you on is really the key “Are you true to yourself? I had a respectable nest egg NowI’m nervous,” Beauchamp admits “We don’t have much debt but I have two kids in college That’sfifty-six thousand dollars a year I have only a modest pension that will start this year But factoringall of that in, I’m still happy with the choice I made I never worry about whether or not I did the

Starting a new career at any age is daunting Sure, it happens There are certainly people who havestarted law school in their forties or attended medical school in their thirties or even as late as forty

Doing so after fifty, of course, is an altogether different endeavor That said, however, the truth is,almost anything can be accomplished if you want it badly enough And that’s the key: really wanting

it If you’ve always had a passing interest in photography and think kicking your lofty six-figure CFOjob to the curb for a shot at becoming a photojournalist sounds romantic, it is But be prepared to seeyour salary drop to five figures—on the low end—and assume that you have to start at the bottom.You may find yourself shooting the local pet show or shots for a feature on the weather in which youcatch a family at play on a windy day Not exactly the excitement of a war zone—or even a localpolitical campaign

That said, if you still want to take the plunge, the rewards of pursuing a career you’ve alwayscoveted can be immense

First Things First

If you really want to pursue a new career, know exactly what sacrifices you’re willing to make to seethat dream happen Not willing to travel every month? Then a career in sales, for example, probablyisn’t for you

You might start by asking yourself a few questions and delving within for truly honest answers:

Why Do I Want to Pursue This Career? Be honest here If it’s about glamour, prestige, or

proving your professional worth, tread very cautiously Few jobs ever deliver on those goalswith ease

It’s no secret that being successful at any occupation takes long hours of slogging throughhard work But observing a profession from the outside can make it appear easier and moreglamorous than it actually is Take the case of one doctor who was intent on breaking into theadvertising business He called an advertising recruitment firm in New York and expressed hisdisgust with a lot of today’s print and television advertising, describing it as dull, uninspired,and exceedingly unimaginative Surely he could write better copy himself, he said, and offered

up his experience writing medical reports as evidence of his copy-writing skills

What the recruiter suggested was that he focus, at least for the moment, on writing copy formedical ads, as a way to transition into the industry But this arrogant doctor had his sights setmore on reworking Budweiser’s latest campaign and was too proud to start within a less

glamorous area of the industry Perhaps he wasn’t really as impassioned about advertising as hethought if he wasn’t willing to work his way from the ground up

Am I Willing to Start at the Bottom? Your chances of landing your ideal job—or even the fifth

on your list—aren’t great in your first foray into a new field In fact, you may have to consider

entry-level positions Have you read Vanity Fair for years and always thought it would be cool

and exciting to write about celebrities, scandal, gossip, and the year’s best Oscar parties? Itprobably would be, but with little to no experience doing so, your best possible job at a

publication like that is probably as a fact checker, if that—a position that can pay as little astwenty-two thousand a year